Auckland, Day 1

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We had some rather rough sailing overnight, but the good news is we didn't have far to travel. We were in Auckland Harbor before we walk up and had to walk around. Clay was up first and was on his deck walk when the Auckland skyline came into view. We were docking at Queens Wharf by the time I got dressed and to breakfast. It was brilliant blue skies and sunshine here today. The high was supposed to be around 76F but it felt hotter in the sun and cooler in the shade with the constant breeze around the water. Carnival Spirit was already docked near by when we arrived. It left about 6pm.

We had breakfast at Marketplace and an early lunch at Trident Grill. We walked about 6 minutes to the Downtown Ferry Terminal right next door. We paid cash of $14 per person for a round-trip ticket. You had to keep up with your ticket because they scanned them at the Downtown Terminal on departure and return. The ferry between Auckland and Devonport takes about 12 minutes and runs on the top and bottom of the hour. We went over to Devonport on the 12:30pm ferry and came back to Auckland on the 5pm ferry. We were going to Devonport because we had booked a Segway tour. Clay also had eaten the last of his Hawaiian chocolates and had number 1 on his to do list a visit to Devonport Chocolates. I wanted to visit a fabric store we'd found on a map online while searching for a place to eat. We never did come up with a place to eat in Devonport that we could agree on but found the chocolates and sewing store. We wound up headed to the fabric shop first. We had a lot of time before our 3:30 pm tour so we popped in a lot of other shops. We had Tip Top Hokey Pokey ice cream cones as our first purchase. Second purchase was another, different kiwi cross stitch bookmark for Mom to stitch. Our last shop was the chocolates to avoid meltage.

The Segway tour was good. Our guide James was described as a new hire but he did a good job. He'd lived in Devonport most if not all his life so he knew his way around. It also turned out that it was only Clay and I on the tour so it was a private, guided Segway tour. James took photos of us both, me alone and Clay alone. We had signed a photo release when we signed our liability waivers. We broke our No Photos policy! We had a good tour and saw some spectacular views as well as some beautiful historic homes. Highly recommend.

We went to the Albert Street Asian Food Alley for dinner.  It reminds us of Singapore's Hawker centres. We ate several good and affordable meals here in 2017 when we stayed across the street at Stamford Plaza Hotel. The street is still a major construction zone! Tonight we had Indian because our favorite bao bun stall was gone! We were doubly disappointed because Serenity's Silk has the worst bao buns ever! We paid $16 NZD for dinner by sharing an order of butter chicken (which was strangely sweet) with steamed rice and an enormous naan. We paid another $2 NZD to share a Coke Zero. It was all good and just the right amount of food. We stopped at a gelato place and had 2 cones of honeycomb for $13 NZD. It was our most expensive ice cream and we won't be back. I don't know the name but it was right by the ferry terminal on the water. Location, location.

We came back to Queens Wharf as the buses were loading for what they screeners called dinner at the Auckland Military Museum. As the buses were leaving is the first time we had seen or heard where they were busing WCers for the 1st shore side special event. First we heard about food other than canapes with cocktails. The last written notice we got onboard advised participants to get something to eat before boarding the buses and that a late buffet would be available in Marketplace upon return to Serenity.

We had to use our keycards and drivers licenses to get back aboard. This is because Serenity still has our passports, number 1. Also, new for us this year is the extra security leaving a cruise terminal to get on a ship, port authorities matching your face, photo ID and keycard ID. They have warned us it would happen at every port, but it has happened about half the time. That wasn't happening ashore last time we cruised.

More in Auckland tomorrow. My right foot was feeling better today until I blistered the side of my big right toe!

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